A man who filmed a pet pug giving Nazi salutes and posted it on the internet told a court he had received support for the joke from famous Jewish comedian David Baddiel.

Mark Meechan, 30, recorded his girlfriend’s pug Buddha responding to phrases like “Gas the Jews” and “Sieg Heil” but said his video only caused offence because it was taken “out of context”.

Meechan was arrested after the video, uploaded to YouTube in April last year, attracted complaints from people offended by its content. He maintained yesterday it was not a hate crime.

During his trial at Airdrie Sheriff Court, he said he thought only a handful of friends would see the clip but it went viral and was seen 3.1million times after someone unknown to him uploaded it to popular site Reddit.

Meechan recorded his girlfriend’s pug Buddha responding to phrases like “Gas the Jews” and “Sieg Heil” (Image: SWNS)

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At the start of the clip, Meechan says: “My girlfriend is always ranting and raving about how cute and adorable her wee dog is so I thought I would turn him into the least cute thing I could think of, which is a Nazi.”

The dog is seen looking at the camera and lifting its paw to the “Sieg Heil” command and watching a rally led by Hitler on TV.

Meechan, of Coatbridge, said he had since lost eight jobs due to the clip, which sees him repeat the phrase, “Gas the Jews” 23 times.

He added it had attracted much more of a positive response than negative from the public, including a message of support on Twitter from Baddiel.

Jewish comedian David Baddiel (Image: PA)

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He argued he had created the video to simply annoy girlfriend Suzanne Kelly, 29, by creating a “juxtaposition” of her “cute dog” responding to a “horrible phrase” and it was intended to “mock Nazi ideology and culture”.

He said: “It was just for the purpose of comedy.

“She thinks her dog is the cutest thing in the world and I turned it into something horrible which is a Nazi, that was the juxtaposition of the whole video.”

Meechan attends court with girlfriend Kelly (Image: SWNS)

He added: “It was shock humour. I’m not an anti-Semite. I don’t have hatred for any people of any kind.”

Ephraim Borowski, director of the Scottish Council of Jewish Communities, previously gave evidence in the trial to criticise the clip and told how he lost members of his own family to the Nazis. The court heard the video had attracted anti-Semitic comments online but that it had also received 60,000 “thumbs up” on YouTube and only 2000 “thumbs down”.

Meechan said a crowdfunding page set up to help raise the money for his legal costs had hit its £12,000 target in eight hours, with many Jewish people donating.

Meechan made the video in response to his girlfriend's claims her dog was cute (Image: SWNS)

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He said: “The fact certain jokes can end up in people being put in prison has terrified a lot of people.”

Prosecutors allege Meechan communicated material that would cause fear and alarm and stir up hatred on religious grounds.

He also faces an alternative charge of posting a video on social media and YouTube which was grossly offensive because it was “anti-Semitic and racist in nature” and the prosecution claim it was aggravated by religious prejudice.